Notes:please use the second argument of the template to provide more detailed indications. (Discuss in Talk:Backlight#)

Screen brightness can often be tricky to control. On many machines, physical hardware switches are missing and software solutions may or may not work well. Make sure to find a working method for your hardware! Too bright screens can cause eye strain.

There are many ways to adjust the screen backlight of a monitor, laptop or integrated panel (such as the iMac) using software, but depending on hardware and model, sometimes only some options are available. This article aims to summarize all possible ways to adjust the backlight.

Contents

ACPI

It is often possible to adjust the backlight by ACPI. This controls the actual LEDs or cathodes of the screen. When this ACPI option is available, the illumination is controllable using a GUI slider in the Display/Screen system settings or by simple commands on the CLI. The ACPI kernel interface for interacting with the backlight is typically be located here:

xbacklight

A useful demonstration was posted by gotbletu on YouTube. He suggests the following commands to adjust the backlight:

brighten up:

xbacklight -inc 40

dim down:

xbacklight -dec 40

xcalib

The program xcalib can be downloaded from AUR and used to dim the screen. Again, the user gotbletu posted a demonstration on Youtube. This program can correct gamma, invert colors and reduce contrast, the latter of which we use in this case:

dim down:

xcalib -co 40 -a

This program uses ICC technology to interact with X11 and while the screen is dimmed, you may find that the mouse cursor is just as bright as before.

redshift

The program redshift in the community repository uses Template:Codeline to adjust the screen brightness depending on the time of day and your geographic position. It can also do RGB gamma corrections and set color temperatures. As with Template:Codeline, this is very much a software solution and the look of the mouse cursor is unaffected. To execute a single quick adjustment of the brightness, try something like this:

redshift -o -l 0:0 -b 0.8 -t 6500:6500

setpci (use with great care)

It is possible to set the register of the graphic card to adjust the backlight. It means you adjust the backlight by manipulating the hardware directly, which can be risky and generally is not a good idea. Not all of the graphic cards support this method.
By using this method, you need to use Template:Codeline first to find out where is your graphic card.